Cassidy Goodson, 14, Allegedly Murders Newborn Moments After Giving Birth
by Free Britney at .Lakeland, Fla., teen Cassidy Goodson stands accused of choking her newborn to death ... while the baby was still attached to her by the umbilical cord.
Goodson gave birth to a boy in the bathroom of her home on September 19. The 14-year-old is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse.
Police say the high school freshman killed her baby since she "didn't know what to do with it," and used scissors to pry it out of her body and into the toilet.
Lifting the baby out of the toilet, Goodson "placed her hands on the infant's neck and squeezed until he wasn't moving or breathing any longer," according to police.
Goodson had reportedly been wearing baggy clothes to hide her pregnancy.
Two aunts suspected the teen was pregnant, but the girl's mother, Teresa Goodson, "was in complete denial," Sheriff Grady Judd told the media.
As evidence that she wasn't pregnant, Cassidy Goodson had apparently shown her mother a couple of home pregnancy tests that turned up negative.
However, the teen had conducted the tests completely alone.
Three days after the birth, the Sheriff's Office received a call reporting that Teresa Goodson, Cassidy's mother, had found a dead baby inside a shoe box in her home.
Teresa Goodson found it after noticing an odor coming from her daughter's bedroom.
Judd believes that Cassidy Goodson's young age should be taken into account. "Let's remember she is a child," he said. "Where was her support system?"
Officials are considering charging adults who may have known about the pregnancy and kept it a secret. Investigators are also currently trying to determine the baby's father.
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Comments (37 Total)
I think people need to stop being so judgemental and relating her situation to their own when they don't have all the facts. We don't know who the father is, this girl may have been getting abused by father, step-father, uncles... I don't know this just saying. She may have been told she was worthless etc no-one would believe her. She may have been in a completely mental distressed state brought on by stress and acted in this way because she was so alone. I wouldn't have done this at 14 but then I had a close loving relationship with my Mum, Gran, Aunt and so would have had someone to confide in. Maybe this girlhad no-one. Poor girl and RIP poor little boy, so sad.
If she can lay down and make a baby then she knows what she is doing how do you not know what to do with a baby you made if she was scared there are plenty of places that would have help her and not tell her parents if she just wanted to give her child up I think they should not hold back on her that is the problem with the law systems these days they over look so much she needs to be locked away for life that innocent baby she killed will never have a second chance why should she?
It pisses me off that children like this are able to have babies but my husband and I have been trying to conceive a child for 4 years and nothing! She's 14 not 4, she knew what she was doing. Lock her up and her parents for being delusional morons.
I totally agree with your comment. This disgusts me. I miscarried my son but she was given the opportunity to do this to hers?
For anyone interested in a more thoughtful, less sensationalized look at this case, please read: http://juvenilejusticeblog.web.unc.edu/2012/10/05/changing-our-response-to-infanticide/
I don't understand how she went to full term pregnancy and nobody noticed, not only that but this girl looks like she has some serious issues...if anything the teachers in the class rooms don't care at all...if this girl had the education she needed for birth control, or parenting options, or adoption options, this would not have happened....I'm so upset that was an innocent little life and it was taken...now her life is over because nobody gave a shit!!!